


The Soul and The Flesh

by inatrice



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Love Confessions, M/M, S7 Spoilers, Touch-Starved Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 11:39:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15412110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inatrice/pseuds/inatrice
Summary: Shiro needs a hug and to talk.Keith meets his gaze, eyes soft but stubborn. “Being dead doesn’t actually count as resting, Shiro.”True to form, Shiro lets out small huff and fights off a smile.





	The Soul and The Flesh

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this trying to get out of a writing slump, so unbetad and minimal editing. It's short and simple and sweet and I'm deciding if I wanna add more to it w them feeling each other up but idk lol.  
> Anyway I hope you like it!

Keith pads through the the hallway back to the hotel room, careful to balance the breakfast he holds precariously in his hands. He frowns as he thinks about it. Is it a hotel if they’re on a planet other than Earth? Is it just an inn, now? Shiro would know. He’d ask when he got back their room.

When he arrives at the door, he knocks with the toe of his boot. Shiro had been asleep when he’d left for the cafeteria 20 minutes ago, but the other man slept so lightly anymore he didn’t doubt that he’d woken up as soon as the hotel door shut. 

Just as he suspected, Shiro opens the door a moment later, fully dressed and looking surprised to find Keith there.

“What are you doing?” They ask simultaneously before chuckling awkwardly.

“You...brought me breakfast?” Shiro asks, sounding incredulous. As if Keith hadn’t been waiting on him hand and foot since he came back from Black’s astral plane.

“Well, why not?” Keith responds, not letting himself feel bashful. “It’s our first stop on the way back to Earth, I figured we should get a hot meal.” He nods at the man in front of him. “Why are you dressed? It’s still early. I don’t think anyone else is up.”

Shiro shrugs, glancing down at the floor. “Restless.” He admits, pushing his now silver hair back away from his face. “Thought I’d look around while we’re here. It’s a friendly planet afterall.”

Keith frowns gently at him. “Let’s eat breakfast first.” He encourages, walking into the room so that Shiro had to walk back with him. “You still need to rest.” He sets the plates on the table next to the room’s window. “Come sit with me.”

Shiro just watches him from his spot near the door as he pours what looks like milk from the cartons into what smells like coffee. In this room, alone, together, Shiro looks smaller than he did before, like he’s curled in on himself and unsure of how his body is moving. Keith wonders if that’s what happens when your consciousness is transferred to a clone of yourself.

“I’ve been resting for like two years.” Shiro says, a hint of his old jokey self seeping into his voice. “Plus I was in a healing pod for a week after that. That’s plenty of rest. I just want to stretch my legs.”

Keith meets his gaze, eyes soft but stubborn. “Being dead doesn’t actually count as resting, Shiro.”

True to form, Shiro lets out small huff and fights off a smile.

“Eat.” Keith insists. “If you want to walk around, you’re gonna need food to refuel. Maybe you’ve forgotten, but being alive and having your soul decide to stay in its new body takes energy.” He sits down in one of the chairs at the table. It’s not  _ really  _ a low blow, but he can’t help but bring up just how serious Shiro’s situation has been. With a small sigh he adds, “and besides, we’ve barely had time to ourselves.”

Shiro rolls his eyes and takes the few steps over to where the table is, the weird tension that had built up in the room dissipating just like that. “We’ve been together in Black’s cockpit for two solid weeks.”

“Yeah, but my mom’s been there.” Keith throws back with a smile as Shiro sits down across from him. “So not really alone.”

Shiro nods his head to the side, acquiescing, and puts his hand around one of the mugs filled with warm drink. Keith’s eyes trail up his arm. His only arm. Logically, Keith had always been aware that Shiro was an amputee and that he had a prosthetic. But seeing him without it, knowing he was the one to cut it off, drove it all home.

“How is that? Having your mom back?”

“Amazing,” Keith tells him, not even waiting a beat. “Those two years on the space whale were just what we needed to catch up and talk and stuff.” He shoves a forkful into his mouth. “And learn what we needed to know about the quantum abyss, and Lotor, and Romelle.”

Shiro chuckles again and takes a sip from the mug. “I’m really glad you got that time with her.” He says, expression soft, grey eyes filled with nothing but care. “And I’m glad I’m still around to meet her.”

“You and me both, man.” Keith says, unable to stop a smile from spreading across his lips. He winces, though, as a dull pain shoots through his cheek. Even though it’s been weeks, the burn scar across his face is still tender.

“I  _ am _ sorry about that.” Shiro says, eyes never leaving Keith’s face.

“I know you are. You’ve literally apologized for it a million times already.” Keith reassures him, reaching out and putting his hand over Shiro’s. “And I’ll tell you the same thing I always do: it was worth it to get you back.”

Shiro smiles softly at him before looking down at his plate. They finish breakfast together quietly, making small comments about the food and the bits of the planet they can see through the room’s window. It’s nice to have a moment to themselves; away from the other Paladins, away from Voltron, away from the intergalactic road trip they’re on. A real moment to decompress together and take a breath before getting back to work.

When they’re finished, Keith leans back in his chair and stretches. He looks back at Shiro who has nothing but a smile for him. “If I take these dishes back to the cafeteria, will you wait for me so we can take a walk together?”

Shiro scrunches up his nose and rolls his eyes. “Yes. I promise.” 

Their gazes linger for just a few heartbeats more before Keith moves and starts to clean up. There are still no sounds from the other Paladins’ bedrooms on the way down or the way back up, though he has a sneaking suspicion his mom and Coran are up and about somewhere.

When he returns to their room, he finds Shiro sitting on one of the beds, silently scrolling on his phone. Keith watches him for a moment before he clears his throat and walks back towards him. “Ready to go explore a little bit?”

Shiro looks up from his phone, one corner of his mouth twitching. “Not quite.” He says as he puts his phone down.

Keith is about to tease him, mention how he was so eager before, but he can tell the mood in the room has changed. “What is it?” He asks as he sits down next to his best friend instead and places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Some of the tension leaves Shiro’s body immediately and he takes a quick breath before speaking. “This might be a weird question, but, can I have a hug?”

Like so many things, Keith pulls Shiro to him without hesitation. Their legs press together from knee to hip, chests crushing together from the force of Keith’s arms. Shiro lets his head fall to Keith’s shoulder and Keith runs his fingers through the short silver hair at the back of Shiro’s head.

“That’s never a weird question.” Keith promises him fiercely. “And you know you can ask me for anything, any time, right?”

It takes a heartbeat but Shiro nods. His arm finally coming to wrap carefully around Keith’s waist and the tension flows from his body.

Keith turns his head to the side so his lips are pressed to Shiro’s neck. He forces his eyes closed harder, one thumb running over the fabric of Shiro’s shirt. “You must have been so lonely.” Keith whispers. “All that time in Black’s astral plane.” His arms tighten a fraction more.

In a roundabout way, Keith understands. He spent a solitary year in the desert in his shack with minimal human contact saved for when he made supply runs. He remembers the feeling of touch-starvation, how brushing his hand against someone else’s on the grocery store door not only reminded him of how lonely he was, but filled his heart up with an innate satisfaction that stemmed from the most monkey bits of his brain. But it was self imposed. He didn’t actually have to bear life like that if he had ever decided to move on from his grieving.

But Shiro had died. His essence had been saved and stored away in Black’s Quintessence built cloud memory, but he had no body to even passingly receive the kinds of comforts most humans desired at the most basic levels. Keith wonders if him piloting Black had offered anything like that. If the clone piloting Black had been too strange to take comfort in. He’s about to ask, but Shiro speaks first.

“I’m still getting all the memories back, but, there’s something that stuck out in his mind.” Shiro starts. He doesn’t move, doesn’t pull back to look Keith in the eye, and Keith can feel what’s coming. “When you were fighting him, in that...factory I guess, with all the clones….” Another breath. “You said you loved me.”

Keith knew it would come up, knew that it had to be addressed, but he hadn’t thought about what he would say when Shiro finally asked him. He doesn’t move, doesn’t let the pressure of his hug change at all, and decides to wing it.

“I did.” He says. “But you knew that.” No part of the admission had been a lie. Keith loves Shiro more than anyone else, on Earth or otherwise. But he also knows the weight that the timing held as well.

“Sure,” Shiro laughs, his breath tickling Keith’s skin. “But it felt...different.”

A heavy silence blankets the two of them and still neither of them moves. Keith can feel his heart begin to race, and after a moment, he can feel Shiro’s too.

“Would you be mad if it was different?” Keith finally asks him, his voice barely a whisper.

“You mean like... _ like like _ different?” Shiro asks, voice just as quiet.

Frowning, Keith pulls back, his hands coming up to cup Shiro’s face. “I mean like  _ in love _ different, Shiro.”

Shiro’s eyes widen a fraction. He lets out a flustered breath as pink covers his cheeks. “Oh.”

“You don’t have to feel the same,” Keith tells him quickly, sure he’s made a mistake and he has to fix it as fast as possible. “But you should know, too. Now that I have you back, I won’t let there be anything hidden between us.”

“Keith,” Shiro breathes as his expression softens. He brings his hand up to cover one of Keith’s hands. “You don’t have to worry.” He says, able to read Keith’s emotions as easily as he had before. “I...I’m in love with you, too.”

Even though he just heard it, for a split second Keith can’t believe it’s real. All this time waiting, all this time repressing, all this time putting his all into the man in front of him. And he felt  _ the same _ .

“Hell, I promise you, each one of those close that were there on that rock loved you just as much.” Shiro tells him as he grips Keith’s hand tighter. “And you’re right, we shouldn’t hide it anymore.”

A laugh bubbles its way up and out of Keith’s chest and he’s free. All that time longing, all that time trying to convince himself he needed to stop feeling this way about his best friend, all the pressure he put on himself to remain polite and platonic, gone and off his shoulders in an instant. It’s the happiest sound he thinks he’s made in years. He blinks quickly as tears fill his eyes and he somehow manages to speak around trembling lips. “God, tell me again, please.”

Shiro laughs, too, and he presses their foreheads together “I love you, Keith.”

“I love you, Shiro.”

**Author's Note:**

> Ah yeah, that's it! Sorry if it was...idk not enough? But you reading it means a whole lot to me, so thank you so much! I do have other sheith fics and if you like this one or those, come find me on twitter! I'm @inatrice. Thank you so much!


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